My Film Selection

Representation is important. Especially in Hollywood, people want to pay to see themselves positively depicted on the big screen. Asian representation is something that has had a rocky history within Hollywood. From whitewashing to charactures of Asian cultures, this has been a pressing issue that Hollywood had to work on.

For my film article, I wanted to highlight four films from the past five years that made a positive impact on the industry for Asian talent. These films had actors, writers, producers, and directors of Asian decent, which allowed these films to have accurate portrayls.

These are also films that really resonated with me, not only because of the Asian casts, but because of the Asian perspective that these films shed a light on. I believe that Hollywood needs to make more Asian empowerment films to write the wrongs they have done so many times throughout history.

Everything Everywhere All At Once

everything everywhere all at once movie poster

Few things in life are certain besides death, taxes, and maybe the never-ending task that is doing laundry. At least that’s where the characters in writer/directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as Daniels, new film “Everything Everywhere All at Once” find themselves initially. That is, until they take an emotional, philosophical, and deeply weird trip through the looking glass into the multiverse and discover metaphysical wisdom along the way.

In this love letter to genre cinema, Michelle Yeoh gives a virtuoso performance as Evelyn Wang, a weary owner of a laundromat under IRS audit. We first meet her enjoying a happy moment with her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) and their daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu). We see their smiling faces reflected in a mirror on their living room wall. As the camera literally zooms through the mirror, Evelyn’s smile fades, now seated at a table awash with business receipts. She’s preparing for a meeting with an auditor while simultaneously trying to cook food for a Chinese New Year party that will live up to the high standards of her visiting father Gong Gong (James Hong, wiley as ever).

On top of juggling her father’s visit and the tax audit, Evelyn’s sullen daughter Joy wants to bring her girlfriend Becky to the party and her husband wants to talk about the state of their marriage. Just as Evelyn begins to feel overwhelmed by everything happening in her life she’s visited by another version of Waymond from what he calls the Alpha verse. Here humans have learned to “verse jump” and are threatened by an omniverse agent of chaos known as Jobu Tupaki. Soon, Evelyn is thrust into a universe-hopping adventure that has her questioning everything she thought she knew about her life, her failures, and her family.

Everything Everywhere All At Once has won 239 awards from 344 nominations, with the Oscars still to come.

Most of the action is set in an IRS office building in Simi Valley (which, as a Californian, had me in stitches), where Evelyn must battle IRS agent Diedre (Jamie Lee Curtis, having the time of her life), a troop of security guards, and possibly everyone else she’s ever met. Production designer Jason Kisvarday crafts a seemingly endless cubicle-filled office where everything from the blade of a paper trimmer to a butt plug shaped auditor of the year awards become fair game in a battle to save the universe.

Shang Chi

shang chi movie poster

It’s telling when the Marvel Cinematic Universe uses its immense power to operate an assembly line. But it’s just as telling when there’s a deeply human spark to one of their projects, allowing franchise values like great spectacle, striking performances, and intricate depictions of family to prevail. “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” is the latest addition to the latter category, taking after previous Marvel movies that introduced a vision and became benchmarks: “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Black Panther,” and “Thor: Ragnarok” come to mind. This film fits into Marvel packaging in its own way, but it has an immense soulfulness that other MCU movies, superhero movies, and action movies in general should take notes from.

Simu Liu stars as Shang-Chi, a key piece to a broken family that has a history of infighting. The dysfunctional family dynamics are even more important than the ten rings that grant such immense power to Shang Chi’s power-hungry father Wenwu, who has lived for 1,000 years and created a society called the Ten Rings that has destroyed kingdoms and swayed the events all over the world. When Wenwu found love with Jiang Li, there was peace. They married and started a family. But after Shang-Chi’s mother died, a newly monstrous Wenwu tried to mature his son by making him a killer, causing the young boy to leave behind his sister Xialing and Wenwu.

As part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Shang Chi was a box office success. It was also nominated for Best Visual Effects.

The power for this film, however, comes through in the eyes of his father, Wenwu. One of the movie’s most brilliant choices is casting Tony Leung so that can repeat the same magic he’s had from countless romances and dramas in Hong Kong. Leung rules this movie. With the same silent passion and stillness that made “In the Mood for Love” one of the greatest romances of all time, Leung destroys armies, raises a family, and struggles to resist destructive grief; his presence is made all the more powerful by the ten blue rings that help him slingshot around and destroy whatever is in his path. When he hears the voice of what could be his wife from behind a cave of rock, Wenwu becomes a Darth Vader-like tyrant, driving a campaign to rampage through the mother’s magical home known as Ta Lo, in order to get to a cave that everyone else knows has an apocalyptic, soul-sucking dragon inside. It’s the best performance from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Crazy Rich Asians

crazy rich asians movie poster

After teaching her economics class, Rachel meets her boyfriend at a crowded Manhattan bar in New York City, just like hundreds of other New Yorkers on any given night. Only, she has no idea that they’re no ordinary couple. Nick, her boyfriend of about a year, is an heir to one of the wealthiest real estate companies in Singapore. He keeps his finances a secret until they’re traveling to Singapore for his best friend’s wedding. When he smoothly leads her to a first-class cabin, she falls into a fairy tale-like story of a modern day “Cinderella,” with her prince upgraded to a businessman.

While much of the film glitters in its opulent settings, gilded homes and flashy outfits and jewels, it’s still just a simple love story made complicated by family. Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable, even if most of us are not married to or dating secret millionaires. And though the film may feel overstuffed, it all works in service of its story.

Unlike so many recent romantic comedy heroines, Rachel doesn’t long for something better or have her life in shambles. In fact, she’s a rather well put-together career woman, happily in love and excited (if nervous) to meet Nick’s family. Wu plays her as a quick-witted person, with a light and optimistic outlook that love will conquer all.

Crazy Rich Asians has won 14 awards from 66 nominations, including Best Comedy at the Critics Choice Awards.

I imagine most mothers-in-law would approve of an economic professor joining the family, but not Nick’s mom Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh). Her disapproval is written in every muscle of Yeoh’s performance, as if she’s physically rejecting the outsider her son has dragged into their mansion. Rachel lacks the monied pedigree Eleanor desires for her son, and each of the women’s exchanges doubles as a painful reminder of their class differences.

Rachel is Chinese-American, which her best friend Peik Lin (Awkwafina) jokes is why they look down on her as a “banana”—yellow on the outside, white on the inside. It can feel like a curse to feel like an outsider in both the country you were born in or the one your parents come from. Those feelings ultimately become a strength instead of a perceived weakness.

The Farewell

the farewell movie poster

“The Farewell” announces at the beginning that it’s “based on an actual lie,” but the meaningful truths it reveals couldn’t be more poignant or powerful. And while writer/director Lulu Wang’s film is obviously personal and culturally specific, it achieves a universality and a resonance through its vivid depiction of a family in the midst of crisis.

That crisis was actually Wang’s crisis: Her beloved grandmother was dying in China, and the family decided not to tell their matriarch to protect her and prevent her from living in fear throughout her remaining days. Instead, they planned a lavish wedding as an excuse to bring everyone together one last time.

Wang took this story of devotion and well-intentioned deception and turned it into “The Farewell,” a film that’s deeply moving and unexpectedly playful in equal measure. And it’s blessed with several strong female performances, led by rapper and actress Awkwafina (a.k.a. Nora Lum), who serves as Wang’s stand-in and our conduit as the voice of reason. At least, that’s what her character, the Americanized Billi, thinks she is when she returns to her home country.

The Farewell was a Awkwafina's departure from a comedic role. She takes on a dramatic and personal role that landed her a Best Actress Golden Globe.

As Billi and her stunned parents process the devastating news about her dad’s mother and make plans to travel back to China for her cousin’s hastily announced wedding, she’s shocked by the massive lie everyone is prepared to tell. It’s telling that Billi’s parents actually don’t want her to join them at first, they’re so concerned that her emotions for this woman she loves dearly will bubble to the surface and betray their ruse. At the same time, we see early on that Billi can be a cool liar herself about minor details in her daily life, and concocting stories should come naturally to her.

It’s here that Wang explores cultural differences between East and West and between generations without judgment or pronouncement as to whose approach is best. It’s as if she wants to see all sides of the delicate argument with a kind heart and an open mind.